Dive Brief:

• North Carolina requires minority participation in state and local government construction contracts, but general contractors say they sometimes have trouble finding certified contractors with the skill sets they need for public projects.
• In a bid to change that, the state Office of Small and Historically Underutilized Businesses has organized a 12-week N.C. Contractors College with two-hour-a-week sessions taught by people from some of the state's major contractors, like Skanska and Lend Lease – companies that have training budgets already.
• The college is not about the contractors' trades; it is about the ins and outs of bidding for work on public-sector projects, with topics such as digital documentation, LEED certification, and project management.

Dive Insight:

A similar program once operated through the Carolinas chapter of Associated General Contractors, but it was phased out. What got the new effort jump-started was allocation of $150 million last year for work on state buildings. That was the most since 2007.